April 7th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Jan van Riebeeck, who planted in the first grapes in Cape Town was born in 1619.

• The Cullen-Harrison Act went into effect in 1933.  This law was an amendment the Volstead Act and allowed the sale and taxation of low alcohol beers and wines.  It was signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt.

• Suzanne Valadon, artist model and painter died in 1938.  She was the subject of the Toulouse Lautrec painting, The Hangover.

• Director Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939.  He owns Niebaum Coppola, Rubicon Estate, Inglenook, and the Francis Ford Coppola Winery.

• California's Yorkville Highlands AVA was designated in 1998.

• Spain's Penedés DO was created in 2002.

April 6th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Richard I of England, known as “Cœur de Lion” died in 1199.  His wedding was celebrated with Commandaria, a wine originally made by the Knights Templar on Cyprus.

• Jan van Riebeeck established a supply camp near the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.  This would become Cape Town and van Riebeeck would plant the first vineyard there.

• The British Medical Journal for December 13, 1862 reports on the care Margaret McCaffrey by the physicians at Liverpool Northern Hospital as she suffered from double bronchopneumonia.  She was treated from January 1st 1862 until April 6th by several glasses of port wine with other medicines.  She recovered.

• Actress Candace Cameron Bure was born in 1976.  She is owner of Bure Family Wines in St. Helena, California. 

• Spain's Chacolí de Getaria-Getariako Txakolina DO was created in 1990.

April 5th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Isabella I of Jerusalem died in 1205.  Isabella’s first marriage was celebrated despite the castle of Kerak being under siege.  Her mother-in-law sent Saladin bread, wine sheep and cattle to join in the celebration and Saladin ordered that the tower the new couple were celebrating their wedding night in should not be attacked.

• Thomas Cavendish found 300 tuns of Spanish wine buried in the sand in a bay near Valparaiso, Chilean in 1587.  Given that he was a privateer, might be an exaggeration.

• Barbizon School painter, Jules Dupré was born in 1811.  He is known mostly for landscapes, but also for Still Life with a Grey Jug.

• Bonfort’s Wine and Spirit Circular dated 1887 states a ship named Fortuna left Oporto bound for NYC with a cargo of wine.

• Andre Tchelistcheff , the dean of American Winemakers died in 1994.

• Louis Latour, 10th generation president of Maison Louis Latour died in 2016 at the age of 83.

April 3rd - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• It is the feast day of Saint Richard of Chichester. After becoming bishop he established rules to stop clerical abuses, forced priests to abandon their concubines, celebrate mass in clean robes, use the purest wheat flour for communion hosts and wine was to be mixed with water.

• In a letter dated April 3, 1563 Sir Thomas Challoner(Chaloner)  writes to Robert Cecil that he was sending a hog’s skin of St. Martin’s wine asking that it be given to the Queen, “perchance prove her of wine to digest her strawberries better than all the purveyors at home”. Chaloner was Elizabeth’s ambassador to Philip II of Spain.

• Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, a Spanish painter in the Baroque school died in 1682.  He is known for his painting of the Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus transforms water into wine.

• Wine and Ale were provided for the two young men that preached that day in 1688 in Rotherham. 

• AOC Ajaccio (Corsica) was created in 1984.  It is the birthplace of Napoleon.

March 26th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• The Siege of Algeciras, during the Reconquista ended in 1344.  The victor, Alfonso XI prepared for the seige by taxing expanding the Alcabala tax from bread, wine, fish and clothing to all goods.

• The Gambellara DOC designation was established in 1970.

• The San Martino della Battaglia DOC designation was established in 1970.

• The Taurasi DOCG designation was established in 1970. The grapes used to produce this wine were previously called hellenico because of their Greek origin.

• Noël Coward who wrote: The air is like a draught of wine. The undertaker cleans his sign, The Hull express goes off the line, When it's raspberry time in Runcorn. in On With the Dance, 'Poor Little Rich Girl’ died in 1973.

• The Cheverny AOC was created in 1973.

• The AOC Aloxe-Corton was designated in 1986.

March 23rd - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Charles II issued a warrant to the Farmers of Customs for unlading 120 pipes of Canary wine for the Spanish ambassadors in 1667.

• Ludwig Minkus  and Austrian-Jewish composer was born in 1826.  His father was a wholesale wine merchant in Moravia, Austria and Hungary.

• Hubert de Castella arrived in Melbourne, from Switzerland in 1854 and began a winery in the Yarra Valley.

• The Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry listed that W.P. Thompson received a patent for a method and apparatus for manufacturing beer, ale, wine, cider or the like in 1892.

March 20th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• In 1524 Hernán Cortés, Marquis of the Oaxaca Valley decreed that all Spaniards with encomiendas should plant 1,000 Spanish and native grapevines for ever 100 indians in their service.

• The Dutch East India Company was created in 1602.  The South African wine industry, started by Jan van Riebeeck, a company y employee is a legacy.

• Friedrich Hölderlin, German lyric poet was born in 1770 He is known for the poem, Brod und Wein.

• James Christie imported 621 1/2 of port wine and 600lbs of Jesuits bark (cinchona bark, the source of quinine) in 1776.

• Ferdinand Foch, French General, military strategist and Supreme Allied Commander during WWI died in 1929.  The grape Marechal Foch was named in his honor.

• Spain's Plá I Llevant  DO was created in 2001.

• Happy Spring!  It is the Vernal Equinox.

March 15th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Jan Fijt, a Flemish Baroque painter known for creepy still life of hunting dogs and dead game but also responsible for beautiful flower paintings and food still lifes  such as A Lobster in a Porcelain Dish was born in 1611.

• Theodore de Mayerne, a Swiss physician who cared for Henri IV of France, James I, Charles I and Charles II of England died in 1655 from an excess of drinking of bad wine.

• John Snow, the father of modern epidemiology, anaesthesia and hygiene who proved that the cholera outbreak in London in 1854 was associated with one water pump was born in 1813. During the 1830s he became a vegetarian and teetotaler until his health deteriorated and returned to meat and wine..

• Maine was admitted to the Union in 1820.  Vineyards in the State often make fruit, or country wine or with those of cold hard grapes.

• In the Parliamentary Debates of March 15, 1824, the Marquis of Lansdowne makes a motion to support the independence of south America by remarking that, “The time was, when Spain had the power to root up the vineyards of Mexico, that the inhabitants might rely on the mother country for wine“

• Beware the Ides of March!  Try drinking wines from Lazio, the region surrounding Rome, Greek wines that were said to be Caesar’s favorites and Beaujolais from the village of Juliénas which was named for him.

March 14th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• In the History of the 4th Battalion Norfolk Regiment:(late East Norfolk Militia) includes lists of bets among the officers including one: Dated March 14, 1813 from Limerick that Mr. Love bets Mr. Steele a bottle of wine that the place at which the Major commanded the left wing to fire with their arms shouldered was Mallow.  To be paid when decided.  This bet was lost by Mr. Steele.

• John Adlum, an American viticulturist famous for cultivating Catawba died in 1836.  His residence, named “The Vineyard” was located in Georgetown in the District of Columbia.

• English writer, wine-merchant and Master of Wine, Pat Simon was born in 1920.

• Spain's Valdepeñas DO was created in 1995.

March 13th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• The cargo of the ship Jameson and Peggy included James Anderson’s March 13, 1776 order of 5 Pipes (713 gallons ) port wine.  The jameson and Peggy was later taken by American forces during the Revolutionary War by James Munro.

• Louis François Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Conti was died in 1814. He inherited the Romanée- Conti vineyard from his father and owned it until the National Convention stripped him of his property in 1793.  He was exiled and died in poverty in Barcelona.

• The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal for March 13, 1884 contains an ad for the “Choicest and Purest Hungarian Wines ever brought to th is country Strictly for Medicinal Use”

• The Recreation and Cultural Association of Vale do Souto (ARCVASO) was created in 1989 in part to promote Vinho Calum and other cultural treasures.

• William Vere Cruess, food scientist responsible for rebirth of the California wine industry after prohibition died in 1968.  He is also viewed as the inventor of fruit cocktail (in a can).

• It is the feast of St. Ansovinus.  He is a patron of gardeners and is invoked for good harvests.

March 3rd - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Henry XI of Legnica died in 1588.  He spent several years at the court of Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand the 1st acting as the Grand Cup-Bearer.

• Florida joined the union in 1845.  It has been producing wine since the 1500s when the French settled Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida.

• The Frascati DOC was created in 1966.

• The Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG designation was established in 1966.

• Spain's Somontano DO was created in 1984.

• It is National Mulled Wine day.

February 21st - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Hieronymus Bock, a German botanist, physician and minister died in 1554.  He is the first person documented to use the term Riesling in his Kreutterbuch (Plant Book).

• Jeanne Calment, the French supercentenarian who lived to 122 years, 164 days was born in 1875.  She was known to smoke a cigar or cigarette and drink a small glass of Port everyday from ages 111-114.

• Bonfort’s Wine and Spirit Circular reports that the steamer San Juan sailed for Panama in 1890 with a consignment of California wines.

• Lidia Bastianich was born in 1947 in Pula, Croatia.  She is one of the owners of Bastianich Winery in Friuli, Italy with her son, Joe.

• Spain's Dominio de Valdepusa Vino de Pago was created in 2003.  It is located in Malpica de Tajo.

February 19th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Matthaus Schwarz a German accountant was born in 1497. He was the son of wine merchant. He is best known for Trachtenbuch, or Book of Clothes cataloging the clothes that he wore between 1520 and 1560.

• The Peruvian volcano Huaynaputina exploded in 1600.  This eruption led to famine in Russian, bitterly cold winters  and disruption of the wine harvest in France, Germany and Peru.

• The Donner Party was rescued by a search party from Napa Valley in 1847.

• Nathaniel de Rothschild, founder of the French wine-making branch of the Rothschild family died in 1870.

• Spain's Cataluña DO was created in 1991.

February 17th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• In 1662, Samuel Pepys describes a dinner with Sir William Batten, Captain Cocke and Captain Tinker where he drank wine “upon necessity, being ill for want of it, and I find reason to fear that by my too sudden leaving off wine, I do contract many evils upon myself”.

• Lola Montez, royal courtesan of Ludwig I of Bavaria, who's antics incited the people to rebellion by breaking a champagne glass over the head of a police officer was born in 1821. Despite her claims of being a Spanish dancer, She was in fact an Irish peasant born Eliza Rosanna Gilbert.

• John Martin, English romantic painter, engraver and illustrator died in 1854.  His most famous work, Belshazzar’s Feast depict’s the feast held by the Babylonians that used the defiled sacred vessels of the Israelites for serving wine.

• California's Chiles Valley AVA was designated in 1999.

February 2nd - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• "Wein, Weib und Gesang" ("Wine, Women and Song"), Op.333 by Johann Strauss II was performed for the first time in 1869.

• Teinturier Mâle grapes that had been grown from the J.T. Doyle, Experimental Plot in Cupertino were checked for the last time in 1891.  The wine was bright, with good color, no bouquet, slight acetic smell, and of fair quality.”  (It was reared with electricity in April and had deteriorated since then.)

• Tom Smothers of the Smothers Brothers was born in 1937.  He owns Remick Ridge Vineyards in Sonoma.

• Spain's Méntrida DO and Ribeiro DO was created in 1976.

• New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley AVA was published in the Code of Federal Regulations  in 1988.

January 30th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• A Parisian Ordonnance of 1330, forbade the mixing of two wines together; no wine-seller was to give a false name to a wine, or to give a wrong description of its age ; the penalty was confiscation of the wine and a fine.

• Georg Friedrich Margrave von Baden-Durlach was born in 1573.  He founded an exchange bank in Upper Baden which was supposed to organize the wine and grain trade.

• Peter II of Russia died in 1730.  One of his early governesses was the wife of a Dutch vintner.

• Salvador Dalí married Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, better known as Gala in 1934. He later created a wine book, The Wines of Gala, as well as a cookbook, The Dinners of Gala in her honor.

January 29th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin a Swiss American politician and diplomat and a member of Thomas Jefferson’s cabinet.  He was also owner of Friendship Hill in Western Pennsylvania where Gallatin operated a glassworks, gun factory, sawmilll, gristmilll, winery, distillery and boat yard.

• California's San Lucas AVA was designated in 1987.

• New Mexico's Middle Rio Grande Valley AVA was designated in 1988.

• Spain's Binissalem-Mallorca DO was created in 1991.

January 24th - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Pope Stephen IV died in 817.  Under Stephen, the Frankish clergy was reformed requiring men and women be housed in separated convents, which were to hold community property jointly.  He also regulated how much food and wine they could consume.

• Peter IV of Aragon was crowned King of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and County of Barcelona in 1336. He once had a friendly dispute with his Jewish physician about why Jewish people were not allowed to drink kosher wine touched by a Christian.  The Doctor had water brought to wash the king’s feet which he then drank to prove that impurity was not the reason for the prohibition.

• Spain's Tierra del Vino de Zamora DO was created in 2008.

• It is the feast day of St. Cadoc.  At his baptism a holy well that flowed milk and wine appeared. He is the patron saint of Glamorgan; Llancarfan; famine victims; deafness; and glandular disorders.

January 23rd - This Date in Wine History

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• Mary Randolph, author of the cookbook, The Virginia House-Wife; Or, Methodical Cook died in 1828.  She includes recipes for currant wine and mead and included recipes that included wine.  Mary Randolph and her husband lived in a house in Richmond called Moldavia that was later owned by Edgar Allen Poe.

• The Menetou-Salon AOC was named in 1959.

• California's Clarksburg AVA and Virginia's Monticello AVA were designated in 1984.

• California's Sonoma Mountain AVA was designated in 1985.

• Salvador Dali dies in 1989.  The surrealist artist created a wine book, The Wines of Gala, as well as a cookbook, The Dinners of Gala. (Gala was his wife).

• Oregon's Rogue Valley AVA was designated in 1991.

January 22nd - This Date in Wine History

DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Mark Logico, U.S. Navy/Released

Wine has a long established history of being our drink of choice for celebrating, entertaining, and savoring life; but it didn't start out that way. From the invention of the barrel to the designation of the separate viticultural areas, wine has a long and sorted history.  In our daily feature "This Date In Wine History," we share an event of critical importance in wine history.

• George Gordon Byron, known as Lord Byron was born in 1788. He used a skull found at Newstead Abbey as a wine cup. He wrote the poem Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed from a Skull.

• Antonio Todde was born in1889.  A Sardinian shepherd, he is known for saying, "Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day".

• Alexandrina Victoria, known later as Queen Victoria died in 1901.  She was known for enjoying a mix of claret and whisky.

• Food Network star, Guy Fieri was born in 1968.  He is owner of Hunt & Ryde Winery.

• California's Atlas Peak AVA was designated in 1992.

• Feast day of Saint Vincent of Saragossa, patron saint of vintners.